


Cling

by orphan_account



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Android Glitches, Asphyxiation, Body Horror, Gen, Gore Vibes, Supernatural Elements
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-01
Updated: 2018-12-01
Packaged: 2019-09-05 00:37:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,510
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16800208
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Hank never expected to be woken up early on a cold morning by the sickening, wet noises of Connor being ensnared by his own skin.





	Cling

It was 4:48 A.M. Eastern Standard Time. Normally the only thing waking Hank from sleep at this point would be a particularly loud snore from his own mouth. Or occasionally Sumo creaking the bed as he sunk his weight into it. But today was different.  


Hank was roused by his bedroom door being slammed open. "Han-!" a voice attempted to call his name before being cut off with a wet sort of snap.

"Ugh, you have any idea what time it is?" The question was pointless considering, being an android with an internal clock, Connor obviously always knew what time it was. Hank reached over and turned his lamp on.

He immediately wished he hadn't.

Illuminating the dark room revealed Connor, or at least Hank _thought_ it was Connor, stumbling slowly towards the bed. The head had no fucking face, and was tilted downward slightly. Hands grew out of it- no, it was more like his hands had come up to clutch his own face and gotten fused to the skin. As he shuffled blindly forward he was trying to pry his hands from his head but it wouldn't give. The skin looked gooey, clinging and leaving strings when the hands managed to separate a bit before forming even more skin and snapping them back to their place. 

"What the fuck is this." It came out of Hank more like a statement than a question.

This was definitely Connor, he decided. He was wearing his black t-shirt and sweat pants he always wore around the house.

"Connor, what's happening to you?" Hank asked in horror.

A gurgling whistle, very quiet, came from where the mouth would be, and the skin around it puffed out a little.

Hank came closer. He could barely make out Connor's facial features under the thick, moist flesh. It was as if the skin had grown over his whole face; his eyes, nose, mouth, even the holes of his ears. Where his hands were adhered to the sides of his face the fingers were hardly visible under the overgrowth. His head was tilted down still because it had stuck to the skin of his neck in webbing. The skin on his arms was just as gooey as the rest of it.

His LED had just about vanished beneath layers of artificial flesh but Hank could see a faint ring of red shining through. He put a hand on Connor's shoulder.

Connor jolted, startled. Then he started to hyperventilate. Except he didn't, because it was all internal, a muffled wheeze as he sucked on his own stale air that was trapped under the slimy mess that used to be his face.

Hank didn't know what kind of sick android disease this was and was starting to think he was still asleep in bed. A nightmare. But nightmare or not he'd be damned if he let Connor's own body kill him.

"Okay, c'mon, we're gonna fix this." Hank turned Connor around and lead him along by his shoulders, herding him to the kitchen. When they made it there he gently pushed the android into a chair.

The older man was running on autopilot, repressing his fear and confusion and blocking the vile sound of Connor choking on his own face out of his ears as he retrieved a knife from the drawer.

Without much warning to the poor android Hank pierced the wet skin over his mouth with the knife. A tattered hole split open and Connor was able to suck in a couple panicked breaths tinged with an attempted scream before the tear immediately knit itself back together.

"Fuck!" Hank swore. He slashed at Connor's mouth again and jammed three fingers in, trying to hold open the hole and prevent it from growing back again. Flesh latched onto the fingers and crawled towards them quickly, sealing Connor's mouth up around Hank's hand.

Succeding only in giving Connor his fingers to suck on instead of fresh air Hank yanked his hand away. Connor yelped in pain as much of his skin came with it, the lost portion clinging to Hank's hand as the new viscous substance took its place.

Beyond the point of reasonable thinking Hank decided to try to cut Connor's hands off of his face with the knife. Even using pressure and a sawing motion they were stuck fast. The skin may have been getting thicker, like a creature growing stronger as it fed. And every time the knife hit skin Connor would shudder and his attempts at breathing would become more desperate. 

Touching the skin was causing Connor pain. It took Connor hostage and refused to release him. He couldn't see, he couldn't breathe, he couldn't hear Hank's voice. Hank couldn't think of any way to help. He felt useless.

"Um. Uh. The car. Let's go. We're gonna get you help."

Connor's damp flesh stuck to Hank's car seats. Hank was only grateful that there was no blood and it didn't smell like a corpse.  
As the car sped along at what they both knew was unsafe speeds, any obstacle slowing their progress having to face Hank's wrath, Connor attempted to keep himself as still as possible. But error reports and warnings of biocomponent malfunctions mingled with the pressure growing in his chest and the tightening of his skin. He began to rock himself back and forth.

Hank pulled Connor through the doors of the CyberLife-store-turned-android-hospital by his sleeve. He didn't care that everyone was staring because he looked like he was wrangling a syrup monster suffering a seizure.

"Can I get some help over here?! He's fucking melting or something- he can't breathe. His skin is eating him!"

He is also didn't care that he sounded like a raving lunatic.

Thankfully a couple of androids didn't waste any time ushering them back to be seen. Connor was sat on a table still shaking like an earthquake in human form, trying to shake his head about between rapid and frantic smothered noises but was too restricted by the hands still attached to it. 

A female android, a nurse in white, calmly reached behind him and pulled off a rectangular panel from the back of his neck, strings of flesh like cheese from a slice of pizza following it to the tray beside them. She reached a finger between Connor's exposed wires and pushed.

Suddenly every inch of Connor's skin had dissolved, rather quickly. Hanks nightmare was over just like that. He couldn't help rushing over and holding his android as he took his first gasping breath since far too long.

Then Connor collapsed completely against Hank, eyes closed, not another breath to follow the first.

"Connor!" Hank shouted. "Don't- don't you fucking dare!"

"He's alright." The android in white reassured. "He's got to restart a few functions after the ordeal. He's in standby mode. Like sleep." She smiled.

Hank let out his own breath he'd been holding and moved Connor backwards to lay on the table.

"First off- what the hell even happened to him?"

"I suspect an error disrupted the normal function of his synthetic skin. The program was fed false information that led to changes in the consistency and growth rate of the flesh."

Hank stared.

"A glitch made his skin sticky and grow too fast. And grow over parts it shouldn't have. It also prevented him from deactivating the skin himself, so I overrode it manually."

"A glitch?" Hank repeated in disbelief. He tried not to think about how Connor suffered because Hank didn't know the simple act of pushing a button in his neck to turn his skin off for him. "So he- and any android- can just get a random glitch that makes their skin come alive and probably kill them? Is anyone trying to fix that?"

The nurse grimaced. "It's a rare occurrence, and not spontaneous. The cause of the error can be isolated and remedied with further tests."

"So you can fix it?"

She nodded.

Connor began to stir.

Hank put a hand on Connor's bald, plastic head and the android opened his eyes.

"That was awful." he croaked.

Hank snorted at Connor's bluntness. "Damn straight. I'd be on your ass for worrying me but I think you've been thoroughly through the wringer already."

"Alright, it's done. You should be good to reactivate your skin now, Connor."

Connor bit his lip.

"Doing so is entirely up to you."

Connor looked at Hank. 

"She says it's safe, Connor. You know I don't care."

"You wouldn't find this difficult to stomach?"

Hank laughed. "After today? As long as you're not dripping your own skin on me I'm good. Besides, you still look like you."

Connor smiled, even though like this he didn't technically have lips to do it with, and Hank thought it was beautiful.

"I think I'll wait a while and see."

"Sure, whatever. Look, I didn't eat anything all morning. I'm starving. We need to stop by the Chicken Feed."

"I don't think your friend Gary would appreciate having me, especially looking like this."

"Fuck Gary."


End file.
